Who Is Jesus?

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Historical figure.

I don't know.

I think he was just a person.

I don't know.

Just a normal person like us.

He was a selfless person.

I have no clue. He was a man.

I think he was a marketing genius, 'cause he got people to believe him.

I don't—I don't think he's the Son of God. I don't feel—believe that at all.

If David Copperfield was in the day of Jesus, he would be Jesus.

I'm pretty sure he existed, like, I'm not going to say that he didn't exist.

He was God's Son, but so was Gandhi, and so is Muhammad, and so is—you know—we're all God's children.

Jesus is someone I pray to.

Well, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, um, and he, to me, is the, like, symbol of just ultimate forgiveness and ultimate love. He's sort of that, like, constant figure in my life.

Jesus is also Eisaa in Arabic, and he was a messenger as well.

He was just extremely enlightened, like, religiously and morally.

He was somebody that, um, just tried to, um, impart wisdom on others and, um, make the world a better place.

I think he saw something that a lot of people didn't see, and still don't see, in others, and I—I think that's just a lot of love and—and hope.

Jesus sort of seemed like an ominous, uh, figure, you know? He just—he—he was God, and it was hard to relate to him. But I think as I've grown in my faith a lot, I've really started to see Jesus as my closest friend.

These are real people, many who represent people we know.  Some of them may even represent some of you listening today.

The Gospel of John was written for Jews and Gentiles, with the intent of showing that Jesus is the Son of God. Instead of the focus being on the various things which Jesus did, John seems to have focused on the meaning of the various things Jesus did. John’s Gospel is considered by many as the most steeped in theology.

As we begin our study in the Gospel of John, we are going to see more clearly just Who Jesus really is.  We’re going to understand better why Jesus did the many things He did.  Hopefully, we’ll begin to understand the incredible humility and love that was shown by His coming to this planet.

Today, we want to grasp the fact that Jesus was and is God.

Let’s read the first five verses of John 1.1-5

John 1:1–5 NASB95

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Let me begin, before walking into the text, it is imperative that we understand that Jesus Christ is God.  Anything less than that denies Who He is.  To claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, while denying that Jesus is God, is to deny your own faith.  This is seen throughout the Bible, and in particular, the New Testament.  The Gospel of John has as the major theme this very idea.  Everything about God, the Father, can be seen in Jesus, God the Son.

As we begin this series, it will be helpful to understand that the first 18 verses is almost like a movie trailer.  These verses give an overview of all that is contained in this book which John wrote.  

It will also be helpful if we understood why the Holy Spirit caused John to write this book.  That is found in John 20:31: “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

Beginning - 1.1-2

Many of us might question why, if Christ has always existed, does John use the phrase in the beginning.  Very simply, this Word is referring to the beginning of all of creation.  In other words, in the beginning was the Word, whom we know to be Jesus Christ.  Jesus is not a created being. Jesus has always been.  The Word, or Logos, is eternal.  And the only One Who is eternal is God.  Thus, Christ is eternal.

The Greek language use of the verb, was, shows a continuing action, as it is an imperfect tense.  Simply put, Christ was continually in existence and never had a beginning point.  

Now let’s look at the idea of the Word, or Logos.  Greek philosophers would have understood this word to show reason and order in the universe.  So, when the Greeks read John’s letter, they would understand that Jesus represented all that there could be to the universe’s creation, order, and wisdom.  However, what didn’t make sense to most Greeks was that this Logos, who was God, would become a man.

Lest we think this is aimed only at the Greeks, we must understand that the Jews understood Logos as the Word of the Lord, showing His power and wisdom.  It was God’s Word, or Logos, that gave instructions to His people and spoke through His prophets.  

Then we slide a few words farther, into the next phrase: and the Word was with God. This actually carries more power and punch than our English language shares.  This expresses a deep, intimate fellowship which is best described as face-to-face.  

But wait!  That is not all!  The Word was God.  The Word has always been; the Word has intimate, personal fellowship with the Father, now we see that the Word was God.  This short phrase is probably the clearest phrase in all the Bible which shows clearly that Jesus is God.

There are many cults and false teachings that suggest that the Greek language can be understood to say that the Word was a God, or that God was the Word.  However, without taking another 20 minutes to explain Greek grammar and how all of those false ideas are completely ludicrous with a simple understanding of Greek, let me assure you that this is in reference to Jesus Christ being the Word and being the same essence as God the Father.  I will tell you that the Greek language is a very precise, mathematical language. You remember from your story problems in math that certain words are clues to the formula. A verb of be always means equal in math. In verse 1, there is no need for the definite article, the. That is because a verb of be is found which means, simply: The Word was Equal to God. If you are interested in more details, I invite you to contact me during the upcoming week and I will do my best to clarify it better.

The reality is that the Holy Spirit inspired John to choose the exact wording that needed to be written.  If that wasn’t enough, then John reemphasized this thought again in verse 2.  He uses the same imperfect tense of the verb was to show that Christ had continuously existed before the beginning.

This issue of the deity of Christ is of such importance that John gave strong warnings about those who teach otherwise in 2 John 10 “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting.” I understand that this might sound harsh.  However, those people are already enemies of God and are servants of Satan. Knowing this, we do not help them out in any way, nor do we show hospitality.

These 2 verses certainly do not give any wiggle room for debate regarding whether Jesus was and is God. Yet, John takes it a step further by showing that Jesus is the Source of creation.

Source - 1.3

If anything has been created, Christ did it.  In fact, the literal translation of the negative affirmation of Christ being creator, . . . nothing came into being . . ., would read, not even one thing.  

To some, this may not seem like a big deal.  Yet, it is; for the Creator of everything cannot be created Himself.  If He were created, that would mean there would be something or someone who was before Him.  That cannot be if Jesus is truly God and has always existed.

You probably are thinking that Genesis 1.1 sounds very similar to John 1.1, as it deals with creation. This starts to provide insight that Jesus, the Son of God was definitely involved in creation.

John even uses a different verb.  Instead of eimi (aim - ee), which in verses 1-2 describes the eternality of was, John uses ginomai,(gin - oh - my) for the phrase came into being.  This is also in the perfect tense in the Greek. Simply put, this lets us know that it is a completed act. The idea of creation being a process is not plausible, knowing this. Throughout the Bible, we are shown that God is the Creator.  Since John is stating here that Jesus is the Creator, we must come to the conclusion that Jesus is God.  

This also has other implications because there was a heresy known as Gnosticism which taught that the spirit was good; whereas, matter and the physical was evil.  That being the case, a good God would have had nothing to do with creating anything physical.  This seems to have created all kinds of faulty thinking, even to the point of some of the evolutionary theories which have been are are still quite rampant today.

Thus far, we should be clear that the Word has always existed, thus He is God.  We also know from John’s writing and many other authors, moved by the Spirit of God, that Jesus is the Creator of all that there is.  Now we are about to see God in a whole new way.

Life and Light - 1.4-5

Here we see that Christ is life and light.  How wonderful that God Himself would come to this world which was full of death and darkness!  But does this idea of life simply refer to His physical appearance?  Not at all!  In fact, the word for physical life would have been bios (by - os).  The word used here is zoe (zoh - a) which refers to spiritual life.  This word is used 36 times in the Gospel of John. This is the reality, that Christ has life in Himself and is not reliant upon anyone else.  Only God could have this.

Is this really important?  I am convinced that it is.  Why is there such an onslaught against Creationism?  Why is there such a cavalier attitude about destroying the life of the unborn or the defenseless? 

Let’s look at this briefly.  If you can convince people that Creationism is mythical and unscientific and that everything evolved, you have rid yourself of the idea of a Creator.  When that is accomplished, people can live however they want.  And it’s inevitably for themselves.  So if an unborn child can be seen as an inconvenience, we call this child a fetus or a combination of cells as if it’s a mole or a skin tag or a wart.  If someone dares to get in the way of our personal pursuits, we slander them, divorce them, or murder them.  

Thus, it is necessary that we recognize that whenever John uses the word zoe, he is reminding us that in Jesus is spiritual or eternal life. It’s not dealing with physical life here.  This is why Jesus came into the world as the Word.

But why does John use the word light, as well?  It is not two separate things.  Light and darkness are seen throughout this Gospel. Look at verse 4: the life was the Light of men.  There is no disconnect.  Light and life share the same essence.  We see here a contrast brought out by using these words.  The Word is true and holy, just as God is true and holy.  The world is full of lies and sin which equates to darkness.  As a result, humanity is wallowing around in darkness and death. Light comes to expose it and provide life.  We will see this brought out in other places in John later.

As we look at verse 5, there is a bit of a puzzle presented.  Again, the English language doesn’t quite bring the clarity we need.  How can darkness comprehend the light?  We usually think of comprehend as dealing with understanding.  A clearer, more understandable translation would be that the darkness did not [overcome] it.  Warren Wiersbe states: A literal translation of John 1:5 reads, “And the light keeps on shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it or understood it.” The Greek verb can mean “to overcome” or “to grasp, to understand.”

Throughout history, Satan has done all he can to try to thwart God’s plan.  In the Old Testament, he tried to destroy Israel.  If he could have done that, the Messiah would not have come.  He tried to destroy Messiah’s lineage.  You will recall that Herod was used by Satan in an attempt to destroy Jesus when He was a baby.  Early in Jesus’ ministry, Satan tried to short circuit Jesus with the many temptations in the wilderness.  He tried to use Judas to destroy Jesus.  Even at the cross, when Satan probably thought he had won, Satan was unable to overcome the Light.

Reflections

We can never be apologetic in our presentation of Jesus as God.  Without an acceptance of this fact, a person cannot be saved.  There is no hope of eternal life or heaven unless one accepts that Jesus is indeed God.

We know that Jesus is the Word.  He has always been.  There has never been a time that Jesus has not existed.  In fact, He was there at the beginning of time as the Creator.  And in His great love for humanity, He entered into our realm in the form of man as light and life in a dark and dying world. He came to provide eternal life.

So, who is Jesus?  He was and is God!